Sounds of the Middle East

Nadeem Dlaikan and his ensemble performs Middle Eastern music in the Cook-DeWitt Center at 8 p.m. on Thursday, February 20. The event is free and is sponsored by the Middle East Studies program as part of the Model Arab League.

Middle East expert Salah Hassan, editorial board member of the Middle East Report and a professor in the English Department at Michigan State University, will speak at opening ceremonies for the Michigan Model Arab League, held at Grand Valley February 19-21. His presentation takes place 6:30-8 p.m. Wednesday in the Grand River Room of the Kirkhof Center, Allendale Campus. The public is invited to the event; a question-answer period will follow Hassan's lecture.

About 100 college students from throughout Michigan and the region are gathering at Grand Valley for the three-day Michigan Model Arab League. One of only about 11 such groups nationwide, the league is a simulation of the League of Arab States in which students assemble into delegations, attend council sessions, debate issues, and then vote on resolutions at a final summit. Delegations hail from Grand Valley, Hope College, Aquinas College, the University of Michigan¿Flint and Dearborn, Michigan State University, Muskegon Community College, Ohio State University, Spring Arbor College, and Regis University (Colo.).

Eleven participants from GVSU will represent Tunisia and Libya in the league. Eight of these students plan to continue on to the National Model Arab League in Washington, D.C., in April to serve as delegates for Bahrain.

Representing Iraq in the Model Arab League this week is a delegation from the University of Michigan¿Dearborn.

The Michigan Model Arab League is sponsored by Grand Valley's Middle East Studies program and the National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations. See http://www.ncusar.org (under university models) for a complete list of Michigan Model Arab League events.